So what happens to wildlife when darkness falls in the middle of the day?! I've always been curious about this and so I made this audio recording during a total eclipse of the sun in Texas on April 8th, 2024.

I ventured a kilometer downstream, on the outskirts of the City of Llano and set up my microphone in a willow tree on the banks of the Llano River. It felt remote but infact it was only 200 meters from the nearest dwelling.

In the recording you will hear the constant hum of the river along with the constant presence of birds. Listen carefully and you'll hear dogs barking, the wind coming and going, a man hammering a fence post, several aeroplanes, footsteps, branches snapping, dogs howling, car horns beeping, voices, the clink of a steel pole, crickets, frogs, a rock falling, people cheering in the distance, the crow of a rooster, insects buzzing past and finally the dawn chorus. Of course the landscape descends into total darkness during this recording but it's such a gradual process it's quite difficult to identify in this sound recording.

A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the sun and Earth and blocks all or part of the sun's light. For this total eclipse at 1.37pm, the longest period when the moon completely blocks the sun was 4 minutes and 24 seconds. However the overall process takes nearly three hours. It's very gradual. The last time the contiguous U.S. saw a total eclipse was in 1979.

The thumbnail image is a still from a little timelapse I shot from the bank. I amused myself climbing trees, sky gazing and I balanced a steel pole and a steel ring in the river. That's me with a head torch on my head in preparation for the total darkness that was about to descend. The actual microphone is on the far side of the river behind me about 50 feet back from the river. I didn't want it to record all my movements but in hindsight I think I should have positioned it a bit further back from the water so that the recording isn't as drowned out by the water. Also I should have used my wind shield on the microphone to soften the noise of the wind.

It's a 2 hour and 4 minutes long recording! Consider using headphones for the full effect or leave it on in the background. Think I'll put it on loop when I go to sleep tonight! Enjoy.